The final tallies are in and IFAI Expo 2007 had another smashing success this year as the largest specialty fabrics trade show in the Americas.
The Industrial Fabrics Association International hosted 7,637 registered participants from 61 countries, packing the aisles of the enormous exhibit hall Oct. 3-5 in the Las Vegas Convention Center. Four-hundred-fifty exhibitors displayed an impressive array of new products, smart fabrics and green solutions.
According to Todd Lindemann, IFAI Vice President of Conference Management, "The attendance at IFAI Expo builds each year and is living proof of the health of our industry. We continue to see strong growth in the digital graphics market with machinery and also in fabric technology."
There was a great buzz throughout the hall as buyers sat down at the booth tables and calculators whirred. Steve Weiss with Sattler North America gave this year's trade show a rave review: "The amount of business I received in the first hour paid for my entire exhibiting cost at Expo 2007."
IFAI keynote speaker on opening day was the well-known marketing expert Phil Lempert, a savvy analyst of consumer behavior. Lempert provided many insights into marketing to the Baby Boom generation, new trends and products, and the changing retail landscape. He is regularly seen and heard throughout the media-on NBC's Today Show, as a talk-show host for Sirius Satellite Radio and WOR Radio Network to name a few; and has authored multiple books.
Lempert's entertaining presentation identified and explained impending trends and related specialty fabric solutions to a packed audience of exhibitors and attendees who found his ideas very useful for planning the design and development of products and services for a wide range of customers.
To enrich the participant experience to the max, IFAI Expo 2007 raised the bar even higher from the previous year on educational opportunities with 114 industry speakers and facilitators; nine market-specific symposiums and ten hands-on workshops and seminars.
Many of these sessions sold out and included insights and how-tos on everything from e-textiles, to super technologies for sports gear, a global exchange on battlefield textiles, and a special pre-show symposium for a non-traditional Expo audience of architects, designers and engineers focusing on sustainable design with fabrics--a hot topic and the new wavein the world of building design and construction.
The break-out event at Expo 2007 was an incredibly creative take on high-tech fabrics--a "High-tech Fashion Show"--which drew nearly 500 attendees to a full-out catwalk parade of flashing lights and pumping music with male and female models dressed in the latest apparel that science and engineering have to offer.
"Industrial fabrics" showed off its arrival as a new glamour category-a result of the demand for high-tech function which combines with form and appearance in such intelligentgarment categories as safety and protective wear for military, first-responder and medical personnel; as well as sports apparel.
